Alpha Release Requirements

In order to be released to the general public, a compose must meet all of the following criteria. This is intended to make the decision process as clear and straightforward as possible. Mostly met items are incomplete until they are met. Optional and nice to have items should not be included in this list.

There may be times where a requirement is unmet only in a particular configuration, such as with some keyboard layouts but not others, or if a particular character is used in a username, password or passphrase. In such cases, the release team should use their judgement and refer to precedent to determine whether or not the issue should be considered to block the release. They should consider the number of users likely to be affected by the issue, the severity of the case when the issue is encountered, and the ease or otherwise with which the issue can be avoided by both informed and uninformed users.

The term release-blocking desktops means all the desktop environments in which bugs are currently considered capable of blocking a Fedora release. The current set of release-blocking desktops for the x86 architectures is GNOME and KDE, and for the ARM architectures is Xfce. Note that bugs in desktops that are not part of this set which would infringe these criteria automatically qualify for freeze exception status, according to the freeze exception bug process.

The term release-blocking images means all the images in which bugs are currently considered capable of blocking a Fedora release. The current set of release-blocking images includes the images defined by the three primary Products - Server, Workstation and Cloud - in their product requirement documents and/or technical specifications, and the KDE live image. As of Fedora 24, no 32-bit x86 image can be 'release-blocking', by FESCo policy. The canonical list of release-blocking images for Fedora 28 is on this page.

There must be no file conflicts (cases where the files in some packages conflict but the packages have explicit Conflicts: tags are acceptable) or unresolved package dependencies during a media-based (DVD) install

Where platform support exists, all dedicated installer images (except efidisk.img, which offers no options) must boot to the graphical boot menu and allow the user to select install options. If no option is selected, the installer should load after a reasonable timeout

The installer must boot (if appropriate) and run on all primary architectures from default live image, DVD, and boot.iso install media

The boot menu for all installation images should include an entry which causes both installation and the installed system to use a generic, highly compatible video driver (such as 'vesa'). This mechanism should work correctly, launching the installer and attempting to use the generic driver

The installer must be able to use at least one of the HTTP or FTP remote package source options

When booting from a DVD ISO image, the installer must be able to use the DVD local package source options

The installer must be able to complete an installation using the text, graphical and VNC installation interfaces

The installer must be able to complete package installation with the default package set for each supported installation method

The installer must be able to complete an installation using any locally connected storage interface (e.g. PATA, SATA, SCSI etc...) with the default file system

The installer must be able to complete an installation using the entire disk, existing free space, or existing Linux partitions methods, with or without encryption or LVM enabled

The rescue mode of the installer must start successfully and be able to detect and mount an existing default installation

The installer must be able to report failures to Bugzilla, with appropriate information included

In most cases (see Blocker_Bug_FAQ), a system installed according to any of the above criteria (or the appropriate Beta or Final criteria, when applying this criterion to those releases) must boot to the 'firstboot' utility on the first boot after installation, without unintended user intervention. This includes correctly accessing any encrypted partitions when the correct passphrase is supplied. The firstboot utility must be able to create a working user account

Following on from the previous criterion, after firstboot is completed and on subsequent boots, a system installed according to any of the above criteria (or the appropriate Beta or Final criteria, when applying this criterion to those releases) must boot to a working graphical environment without unintended user intervention. This includes correctly accessing any encrypted partitions when the correct passphrase is supplied

When booting a system installed without a graphical environment, or when using a correct configuration setting to cause an installed system to boot in non-graphical mode, the system should boot to a state where it is possible to log in through at least one of the default virtual consoles

It must be possible to run the default web browser and a terminal application from all release-blocking desktop environments. The web browser must be able to download files, load extensions, and log into FAS

The installed system must be able to download and install updates with yum and the default graphical package manager in all release-blocking desktops

The default Fedora artwork must either refer to the current Fedora release under development (Fedora 16), or reference an interim release milestone (e.g. Alpha or Beta). If a release version number is used, it must match the current Fedora release under development. This includes artwork used in the installer, graphical bootloader menu, firstboot, graphical boot, graphical login and desktop background.

A system logging infrastructure must be available and enabled by default. It must provide at least basic local file-based logging of kernel messages, and allow other components to write log messages. This must be done in accordance with relevant standards accepted by the Project

Alpha Blocker Bugs

A bug is considered a Alpha blocker bug if any of the following criteria are met:

A Fedora Change being incomplete, in and of itself, does not constitute a blocker bug. The Change process is separate from this process. Changes are required to meet certain standards at certain points of the release cycle, but this is part of the Change process and managed, tracked and enforced separately from this process. However, if a proposed feature being incomplete causes any of the above criteria to be met, then the bug is a release blocker.

Contingency Plan

If all of the Alpha Release Requirements are not met by 20:00 ETC on Wednesday (1:00 AM UTC Thursday) the week prior to release day, the release will be delayed by one week so that the Alpha Release Requirements can be met.

One week will be added to all remaining tasks in the release schedule, including the final release date.

Confirming Alpha Requirements

QA has the responsibility of determining whether the criteria for the release has been met (as outlined above) through discussion with Development and Release Engineering. QA's findings will be reviewed and discussed at the Go/No-Go Meeting.